Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Foreign Edition Book Covers

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish post a top ten list topic so that book lovers like you and me can pour over our shelves and make our own lists. You can check out all the other Top Ten Tuesday‘s on their site!

Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein

Summary: Amy is fine living in the shadows of beautiful Lila and uber-cool Cassie, because at least she’s somewhat beautiful and uber-cool by association. But when their dates stand them up for prom, and the girls take matters into their own hands—earning them a night in jail outfitted in satin, stilettos, and Spanx—Amy discovers even a prom spent in handcuffs might be better than the humiliating “rehabilitation techniques” now filling up her summer. Worse, with Lila and Cassie parentally banned, Amy feels like she has nothing—like she is nothing.

Navigating unlikely alliances with her new coworker, two very different boys, and possibly even her parents, Amy struggles to decide if it’s worth being a best friend when it makes you a public enemy. Bringing readers along on an often hilarious and heartwarming journey, Amy finds that maybe getting a life only happens once you think your life is over.

Excerpt from PRETTY AMY

I was just about to put out my cigarette and go back inside when I heard a skateboard coming down the street. It sounded like waves, like a conch shell against your ear. That full, empty sound.

Maybe it was Aaron. I conjured up my stupid daydream, the one I used to fill my head when I couldn’t deal with any of the other stuff in there—that he would find me, that he would apologize, that he would tell me that prom night hadn’t been his fault.

The difference this time was that when I looked toward the sound, he really was there.

It was him.

Aaron.

He was skateboarding down the sidewalk like it was made of water, wearing the same loose, worn jeans from his Facebook picture. He carried a backpack, like he might have been coming from the library, but I doubted he ever went to the library.

I lit another cigarette with the end of my last one; any excuse to stay put. Then I remembered I was wearing a suit.

“You got another one of those?” he asked. His eyes were blue. I hadn’t noticed that in his picture.

My hands shook as I gave him a cigarette. He brought a silver-and-black Zippo to his mouth, flipped it open with one hand, lit his cigarette, and slapped it shut. The whole thing took seconds, but it felt like he was doing it in slow motion. “Thanks,” he said.

Maybe he had just stopped to get a cigarette. Maybe it had nothing to do with me.

It probably had nothing to do with me.

“I know you,” he said. “Where do I know you from?”

I couldn’t tell him. Telling him that he’d stood me up for my own prom would have been way too embarrassing. It would tell him that I still cared enough to remember.

“I’m friends with Lila and Cassie,” I said, wishing that my hair wasn’t pulled back in a headband like I was a nun.

“What are you all dressed up for?” he asked.

Of course he didn’t know me. If he had, he would have known that I’d just come from court and that I was trying to do everything I could to forget it.

“I work here,” I said, thinking fast. “I’m supposed to be a librarian.”

“You don’t have to lie,” he said, laughing. “I’m Aaron.”

“Amy,” I said, waving hello with the cigarette in my hand.

He smiled. “Though you do make a cute librarian.”

I tried to keep myself from coughing. “This suit sucks,” I said. It seemed cooler than saying thank you. It seemed cooler than getting all squishy over what he said, even though that was how I felt.

I looked at his skateboard. “You wanna try it out?” he asked.

The deck had a mural of blue sky and white-capped mountains hand-painted on it. The wheels were covered with stop-motion birds, so that when they spun it must have looked like the birds were flying.

There was more to this boy. More that I wanted to know.

“I guess I could,” I said, but then I remembered my mother. She would come looking for me soon.

I shook my head. “I should go.”

“You got a cell phone?” he asked.

“Not that I’m allowed to use anymore.”

“Parents,” he said. He pulled a sketchbook from his backpack.

Maybe he had painted that beautiful mural. He ripped out a piece of paper, wrote something down, and handed it to me.

It was his phone number.

I tried not to act surprised, tried to act like boys gave me their numbers all the time, especially when I hadn’t asked for them.

“See you around, Amy,” he said. He dropped the skateboard next to him. It landed perfectly on its wheels like a cat would on its legs.

As he skated away, I looked at his number; the paper was as soft as fabric. I folded it smaller and smaller and hid it in my bra. Maybe he hadn’t said what I wanted him to say, but he had found me.

GUYS. PRETTY AMY by Lisa Burstein sounds like an adorable, funny, sweet debut contemporary, and I CAN’T WAIT to read it!! I already have a HUGE soft spot for it because the main character’s name is AMY and she is a LIBRARIAN who sometimes wears SPANX. It’s like we’re the same person. HOLLA!

The team at Entangled is also running a pretty sweet contest leading up to PRETTY AMY’s release on May 15. It involves your Worst Prom Photo, and it sounds LEGIT. All you need to do is dig up your most embarrassing, horrible prom photo and keep an eye out on Lisa Burstein’s website, http://www.lisaburstein.com, in the days leading up to PRETTY AMY’s book birthday. She’ll be posting more information on the contest.

* * *

More about Lisa Burstein!

This is Lisa's Junior Prom photo. It is awesome.

Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She wrote her first story when she was in second grade. It was a Thanksgiving tale from the point of view of the turkey from freezer to oven to plate. It was scandalous.

Seraphina

by Rachel Hartman

So, when did THIS happen?! I’m SO STOKED about Rachel Hartman’s debut, and this cover is so old-school gorgeous that it’s turning my excitement up to 11. PLUS, according to Rachel herself, the cover is actually a FOR REAL woodblock print. Like, someone carved this awesome into a piece of wood LIKE A CHAMP and then the cover geniuses made a print of it. WORD. I’m done talking now.

Aaaaaaaannnnnnd…BOOM.

SERAPHINA is coming out on July 10, 2012 from Random House Books for Young Readers.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. I love it because it is basically a squee-fest where book lovers can choose one book that they are DYING to get their hands on. Check it out!

Embrace

by Jessica Shirvington

Violet Eden is dreading her seventeenth birthday dinner. After all, it’s hard to get too excited about the day that marks the anniversary of your mother’s death. The one bright spot is that Lincoln will be there. Sexy, mature and aloof, he is Violet’s idea of perfection. But why does he seem so reluctant to be anything more than a friend?After he gives her the world’s most incredible kiss – and then abandons her on her front doorstep – Violet is determined to get some answers. But nothing could have prepared her for Lincoln’s explanation: he is Grigori – part angel and part human – and Violet is his eternal partner.Without warning, Violet’s world is turned upside down. She never believed in God, let alone angels. But there’s no denying the strange changes in her body … and her feelings for Lincoln. Suddenly, she can’t stand to be around him. Luckily, Phoenix, an exiled angel, has come into her life. He’s intense and enigmatic, but at least he never lied to her.As Violet gets caught up in an ancient battle between dark and light, she must choose her path. The wrong choice could cost not only her life, but her eternity…

I have been itching and wishing and DYING to get my hands on this book, the first in The Violet Eden Chapters series, already published in Australia. (HOORAY, AUSSIE YA!) The story is about Violet, a 17-year-old girl who gets caught up in some NASTY good-and-evil angel-business. The buzz and outstanding reviews for this one are all over the place, and since I’m a little bit late to angel books (I was busy reading other things, you understand), I’m kind of on the lookout for GREAT ones to help me get all caught up. EMBRACE is right at the top of that list. It sounds hot and complicated and FABULOUS. I can’t WAIT to read this one! The whole series sounds EPIC.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. I love it because it is basically a squee-fest where book lovers can choose one book that they are DYING to get their hands on. Check it out!

Scarlet

by A.C. Gaughen

Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance.

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in. It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.

So, Robin Hood is one of my weaknesses, in any medium. The Robin Hood Disney movie? OWN IT. Jennifer Roberson’s Sherwood books Or even Robin McKinley’s THE OUTLAWS OF SHERWOOD? I’m obsessed with reading them (they’re out of my library right now). I even love Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves! I just love the setting and the characters and how the whole premise, to me, revolves around the moral ambiguity of Robin Hood’s thievery. It’s so gray! Yes, he steals, but hey look, he gives what he steals to people in his community who are destitute because of the mistreatment of THE MAN. #OccupySherwood! It’s no wonder at all that he was a folk hero.

This retelling of the story sounds particularly amazing, though, because usually the only women in the Robin Hood tale are Maid Marion, maybe Little John’s wife, Lady Cluck. In SCARLET though, one of the members of Robin’s band of thieves–borrowing the name of Robin’s brother/friend/squire, Will Scarlet–is, secretly to outsiders, a girl (that would be Scarlet), who robs the rich as a member of the Merry Men while trying to elude capture by the evil Lord Gisbourne (Sheriff of Nottingham-ish baddie) and come to grips with her growing feelings for the leader of the pack, Robin. I just sighed out loud, it sounds so great! I am waiting for this one VERY impatiently!